Harry Kunzru: A Record Collector's Lair in Virginia

This episode is about music and authenticity. It's about tradition and modernity. And it's about black and white. 78 collectors are notoriously secretive. The first one I contacted while writing White Tears, well he told me that revealing information about collecting would be against his self-interest. But Chris is the kind of guy who wants to share what he loves. He welcomed me into his lair in Virginia and I've wanted an excuse to go back ever since. This room is a shrine to the early years of recorded sound. Thousands of records in identical brown cardboard sleeves sit on shelves. There's a mixing desk, a turntable, two monitor speakers hung on cables from the ceiling.